Genstar Capital Exits Remaining Stake in Palomar in California

Article

Genstar Capital announced on Monday it has exited its remaining stake in specialty property insurer Palomar Holdings Inc. in La Jolla, Calif.

Genstar in 2014 partnered with current CEO Mac Armstrong to form Palomar, a new specialty insurance platform company that was funded with $75 million of equity capital from Genstar and the management team.

In the last six years, the company has expanded its geographic reach and product footprint. Genstar helped take the company public in April 2019 and since monetized its investment. Palomar announced the underwritten public offering of 5 million shares of the company’s common stock earlier this year

Palomar is listed among the California’s top writers of earthquake insurance.

“We have a strong focus on the insurance industry and our investment in Palomar demonstrates the power of pairing an extraordinary founder and leader with a compelling business strategy,” Ryan Clark, president and managing director of Genstar, said in a statement. “Mac’s vision and leadership of Palomar has brought the company from its founding less than seven years ago to over $2 billion in market capitalization in June 2020. We thank Mac for his partnership and look forward to following all of Palomar’s future success.”

As part of the sale, Clark will step down as chairman of Palomar’s board of directors and will be succeeded by Armstrong. Richard Taketa, a current member of Palomar’s board and a member of Genstar’s Strategic advisory board, will become lead independent director.

Palomar Holdings’ subsidiaries include Palomar Specialty Insurance Co. and Palomar Specialty Reinsurance Company Bermuda Ltd.

Genstar Capital is a private equity firm that based in San Francisco. Genstar reports $19 billion of assets under management.

Related:

Topics California

Was this article valuable?